Synthetic carpeting



March 3, 1959 J. H. KENNEDY 2,876,128

SYNTHETIC CARPETING Filed April 1. 1954 Fig. 3

INVENTOR. JOHN H. KENNEDY ATTORNEYS United States P SYNTHETIC CARPETING John H. Kennedy, "Concord, Mass. Application April 1, 1954, Serial No. 420,289 4 Claims. (Cl. 117 -33) This invention relates to the field of synthetic carpeting and in particular to'a floor covering formed by the bonding of pellets of balled up wool or other textile fibers to a backing surface. 1

Floor coverings particularly of wool or other textile fibers are traditionally very expensive and in general require the additional expense of professional installation. While attempts have been made to reduce the cost of textile carpeting by binding textile fibers to a relatively inexpensive backing material, all of these attempts to date have presupposed the necessity of embedding each thread or fiber element end up in the mastic or else to create a mat of interlocking fibers having relatively little resiliency.

Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to produce a resilient fiber floor covering at low cost without the necessity for vertically orienting the fiber particles. It is a further objective of this invention to provide a floor covering which will be capable of easy home installation, and which will have the resiliency and beauty of a fiber covering, but without the need for fitted and bound edges or professional installation.

It is a feature of this invention that the home owner can not only do his own installation, but can provide his own rug designs using a variety of colors of his own choosing, or can provide sculptured effects by utilizing tightly bound fiber pellets of a variety of sizes or by combining these two features.

An understanding of this invention will be aided by reference to the following figures:

Fig. 1 shows a cross-section of this invention utilized to provide a rug-like surface covering over a rigid backing material which may be the floor.

Fig. 2 illustrates a magnified cross-section of the utilization of this invention providing an inexpensive ruglike surface on a flexible cloth or paper backing material.

Fig. 3 is a cross section of this construction used to provide a rug-like cover bonded to a conventional felt or rubber carpet under-pad.

The basic construction utilized in all three of these examples is to coat a backing material with a conventional binder such as one of the adhesives now used to bind linoleum or a flexible rubber-type cement and to apply to this surface pellets of very tightly balled textile fiber the size of which will of course control the thickness of the pile in the carpet. A layer of these pellets is spread over the adhesive material and pressed or rolled to assure optimum bonding conditions after which any excess may be removed by conventional brushing or vacuuming methods.

This method of construction is illustrated in Fig. 1 where the tightly curled fiber pellets 10, preferably of wool, are shown embedded in the mastic 12-which was spread directly over the rigid backing material 14 which in this illustration is shown as plywood sub-flooring material. The mastic adhesive may be of the conventional linoleum binder type and preferably will be a material which itself will provide resilience particularly where the pile pellets are to be applied directly to the sub-flooring 2,876,128 l 'atented Mar. 3, 195? "ice material. The pellets are embedded in the adhesive besanding and to provide an inexpensive resilient floorcovering which may 'be sold in its finished form, this method of construction can be applied to bond these fiber pellets to a backing material either of thin cloth or i'ia'p'eras shown in Fig. 2 or on the conventional felt or rubber pad undercarpeting shown in Fig. 3. p

-In Fig. 2 the pellets 20 are shown bonded by'the mastic adhesive 22 to a cloth or paper backing material 24. Where relatively flexible backing materials of this type are utilized it will be desirable to add a conventional rubberized film 26 of latex or some other suitable material to prevent skidding and to minimize chances of tearing of the backing material. While it is possible to make up finished rugs in this form it is believed that the construction here illustrated will be as in the above case, primarily utilized for on-the-spot manufacture of a ruglike surfacing. The pellets of tightly twisted fiber are particularly advantageous in this particular form of construction where a relatively insubstantial backing material is utilized, since the layer of pellets pressing against each other form, when bound to the backing material, a relatively coherent structure. The pellets themselves in all of these cases are tightly balled bundles of fiber which are relatively resistant to compression. The carpet covering will therefore tend to resist bending which would tend to press the fiber bundles against each other.

In Fig. 3 a construction is shown wherein pellets of varying size 30 and 31 are secured through the use of the binding material 32 to a conventional rug under-pad made of hair felt 34 or sponge rubber. A backing material of this type adds somewhat to the cost of the construction, but also adds depth and softness to the construction. Fig. 3 also illustrates the possibilities of combining pellets of two or more different sizes to provide ribbed or sculptured effects or to provide a randomly tufted surface. In this illustration the narrow ribs are formed through the use of relatively small pellets 31 together with the larger pellets 30 spaced at regular intervals. Where designs of this type are constructed either utilizing pellets of different size or difierent color it is possible to obtain the design in a very simple manner by applying the mastic for one size or color, bonding the appropriate pellets to it, and then spreading the mastic and pellets for the other parts of the design in sequence.

It is well known that carpeting formed of a single shade of one color is unpleasant and harsh to the eye, and it is.

therefore'conventional practice in forming even a rug of a single color to achieve this color by blending a variety of shades. This teaching may be applied to the subject invention by forming each pellet from a selection of fibers of different shades to give the desired blended color. In addition, it may be desirable to mix pellets either of different shades of the same color or of different colors for simultaneous application. All of these possible variations make this invention exceedingly useful to the home face, a coating of flexible adhesive mastic material on one surface of the backing material, and a plurality of independent tightly balled pellets of textile fibers having their 3 lower surfaces embedded in and adhesively secured by the mastic to the flexible support, the pellets being disposed in contiguous relation substantially in a single layer -with -thcir upper portions freely exposed abovejand substantially concealing the mastic to form a closely-packed carpet-like surface.

2. A floor covering according to claim 1 wherein the fibrous pellets contain wool fibers.

3. A floor covering according to claim 1 wherein the backing material is of paper-like composition.

4. A floor covering according to claim 1 wherein the backing material comprises a woven fabric.

. References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Romane Oct. 15, 1929 1,814,532 Sutherland July 14, 1931 4 Hopkinson Apr. 19,1932 Levin Nov. 15. 1932 Eustis Aug. 29, 1933 Finefrock et a1 Nov. 10, 1936 Coleman Feb. 28, 1939 Gill Oct. 22, 1940 Klammt Aug. 12, 1941 Glidden Aug. 28, 1945 Winkler July 18, 1950 Zettel Sept. 2, 1952 Zettel Sept. 30, 1952 Van Issum Apr. 26, 1955 .FOREIGN PATENTS Italy June 6, 1950 Germany July 16, 1953 

1. A CARPET-LIKE FLOOR COVERING COMPRISING A FLEXIBLE BACKING MATERIAL HAVING A SUBSTANTIALLY CONTINOUS SURFACE, A COATING OF FLEXIBLE ADHESIVE MASTIC MATERIAL ON ONE SURFACE OF THE BACKING MATERIAL, AND A PLURALITY OF INDEPENDENT TIGHTLY BALLED PELLETS OF TEXTILE FIBERS HAVING THEIR LOWER SURFACES EMBEDDED IN AND ADHESIVELY SECURED BY THE MASTIC TO THE FLEXIBLE SUPPORT, THE PELLETS BEING DISPOSED IN CONTIGUOUS RELATION SUBSTANTIALLY IN A SINGLE LAYER WITH THEIR UPPER PORTIONS FREELY EXPOSED ABOVE AND SUBSTANTIALLY CONCEALING THE MASTIC TO FORM A CLOSELY-PACKED CARPET-LIKE SURFACE. 